#so regulate yourself first before trying to communicate with very young or very traumatized parts | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

silviartemis · 4 years

Text

Mental Health Headcanons

This made me sweat blood

Will I do the other half of the kids? Yup. Someday.

TW: this is not graphic or unnecessarily heavy but is still about mental health struggles so if it’s a Bad day take care of yourself. (mentions of: depression, anxiety, ptsd, self destructive tendencies, manic episodes, abuse, dissociation, mentions of death, implied ableism.)

These are headcanons, some is based on canon, some is based on ideas floating around the fandom, I straight up invented other stuff and would love to know what you think and your own headcanons about this topic!

Everything under the cut <3 Also, Canon Era

Katherine had to deal with her mother's depression, which made her emotionally and often physically unavailable most of her life. Thankfully other people (Hannah we love you) stepped in to fill that void somewhat so she didn't suffer as much as she could have but naturally she didn't come out of it completely fine. She has a hard time recognizing and taking care of her own emotional needs and has a very unstable self esteem, sometimes leading to anxious episodes and burn out cause she works herself ragged trying to be "seen" by other people. Has a very strong will though and has learned over time to stop, take a breath, and analyze what she’s feeling.

The Jacobs household is a loving, caring space and that is so important for psychological well being. It’s not very big on communication or feelings though so the Jacob children learned to express themselves mostly through logic and reason, or through their bodies.

· When David was little he showed the first signs of anxiety by having horrible stomach aches whenever he had to leave home to go to school or temple and it’s still one of the main symptoms he gets whenever he struggles with it. Now he still has a difficult time in new social contexts but he more prominently worries about his role and responsibilities in the family, or the future. It can be intense at times but when he was younger his mom helped him learn how to handle it. Since he’s very methodical he has set specific strategies to cope with different stressors (and he’ll gladly teach them to whoever needs it).He still has crisis when the situation is particularly dire but with a little grounding from a friend or his sister he can calm down before he really starts spiraling.

· Sarah is mostly fine. She has stress and responsibilities and frustrations like everyone but seldom gests overwhelmed. When she does, and straight up gets a fever, it's because she refused to acknowledge the emotional or physical toll something had on her, insisted on analyzing and acting following only logic and pragmatism, and ended up ignoring the signs of struggle her mind or her body were showing. She is fine with some rest and care from her parents and siblings.

· Les is a child. A lucky one, because he's surrounded by people that love him and take care of him. He's a very smart kid, like his sister he tends to focus more on the pragmatic side of things. He's less naïve now than he was when he first met the newsies but that only gave him more conscience of the world and more compassion. Will he struggle in his life? Of course, who doesn't. But he has one of the best support systems ever so he'll be alright.

Jack has been self-sufficient most of his life, even when he had his father around. After that, still little more than a child, he had to provide for other kids too. That affected his emotional development: he neutralizes his negative emotions by creating an escape from reality, an image to reach for to keep from succumbing to anxiety and depression. While this is functional to survival, it leaves him even more vulnerable when those emotions inevitably blow up. His multiple stays at the Refuge scarred him more than he’ll ever admit and left him struggling with some PTSD symptoms he carefully hides. His newsies family (the oldest at least) notice anyway and subtly help him calm down. Their love, shown through little gestures and kind touches (he’s very tactile), keeps him grounded. He has a very strong sense of self that helps him get through even the worst times without losing his core. Will put his own needs on hold to care for his family but is not self-destructive, he knows his limits and how far he can push himself before he’s no longer helping.

Crutchie struggles with self worth and self efficacy, tries to mask it by being as independent as possible, even refusing help he actually needs. His family died during the polio epidemic he got sick in but he was very young and he almost doesn't remember them (removal of traumatic memories). Uses his sunny personality to hide his struggles and the fears and discouragement that come with them. He spent many years in an orphanage where he was treated like his being alive was terribly inconvenient so when he feels overwhelmed he seeks isolation because he doesn’t want to be a burden. His experience at the Refuge, albeit horrible, was thankfully very brief so it didn't scar him too much, he has nightmares sometimes but can be comforted easily by his found family.

Race has what we'd now call adhd, he’s actually quite good ad handling it and channeling his erratic energy in making his and other kids lives easier. Except when he keeps purposefully distracting himself from taking care of his needs and pushes himself to the edge of physical collapse either to provide for the younger kids or to fulfill the self destructive tendencies that pop up in his worse days. He may appear very easygoing but has trust issues bigger than the Brooklyn Bridge, cause after only a few months in America his mother left him on the steps of the church and walked away. Incredibly loyal to the ones that eventually gain his trust. Puts on a shield of humor to protect the more vulnerable parts of himself. He has had one of the roughest stays at the refuge (along with Jack) that left him with some post traumatic stress symptoms like nightmares and flashbacks. Very tactile, the feeling of warmth from a hug will calm him down in his worst moments. One of his biggest strengths is his resilience, he will bend but won’t break.

Albert is a victim of abuse. Many other kids are, in one way or another, but usually they come from a very bad situation that they had to flee as soon as they could. Albert's abuse built up over a very long time, keeping him trapped in a home that he felt guilty leaving and slowly numbed him to his own pain. He went from a loving family, through a terrible loss, to neglect, to physical and psychological violence. Struggles with emotion regulation and anger outbursts, has some PTSD symptoms such as flinching away from touch and light dissociation, if triggered. Both craves and is averse to touch, tends to feel over-stimulated when he’s tired or stressed so he copes by holing up with Race on the rooftop. One of the healthiest ways he has to express his emotions is his fierce protectiveness of the people he loves.

Spot fled an abusive neglectful household when he was young, but not before he was completely sure he could fend for himself against the whole world. One of his siblings died while in their parents care and that loss and anger caused him to put up walls so high and thick no older Brooklyn newsie ever really gained his trust, but immediately became very protective of the younger kids, in time earning his position as the borough leader without even noticing. He translates all his emotions into action, often leading to manic episodes that, once they’re over, leave him exhausted both physically and emotionally. While he’s feared by many outside of Brooklyn, his newsies love and respect him and know when to step in and let him retreat for a couple of hours to rest.

#Newsies #katherine pulitzer #davey jacobs #sarah jacobs #les jacobs #Jack Kelly #crutchie morris #racetrack higgins #albert dasilva #spot conlon #ehiIwrotethis

62 notes · View notes

esotericfaerytumbls · 3 years

Text

***MISHANDLED WOMANHOOD & RAVISHED INTIMACY***

From Chris Bale I had a male client communicate to me today: “she’s so hard. I want her to be softer. It pisses me off when she is so hard. What do I do? I keep telling her that I need her to be softer and surrendered in her femininity, but nothing is changing.” You NEED her to be? Slow up brother! “Firstly, you being annoyed by her “hardness” as you put it, is only going to support more hardness.” I replied. There is nothing safe in your reactive judgment towards her current state of being. It says far more about you, than her in this moment. But also, I feel your pain! Lets break it down. —— UNDERSTANDING: A man who demands she be somewhere other than where she is at currently, is a man who is steering her further away from her expressive freedom and bliss. This is a man who does not know. He is shutting her down. But, its not his fault. There is not much assistance out in society for us as men, when it comes to relating with women in a healthy/supportive/polarizing/passionate way. A man who DOES know, understands that whatever his woman is experiencing, is just another ingredient in the “making” of love. Through his non-judgmental presence, he assists her in transmuting whatever emotions/trauma are seeking to clear - If he wants to. If he doesn’t want to, its best to leave her alone. Whats important to realize, is that she he is already “soft” by nature. Minus the fear, distrust, trauma patterns and overstimulated nervous-systems, we all are. If she is not willing to be receptive with you, there are parts of your being which she does not fully trust or feel safe with. (OR, she is deep in traumatic projecting, and it has nothing to do with you. She is so dis-regulated from past experiences, that she cannot find safety even within her own body.) An emotionally reactive and unclear man, is felt as a weak & untrustworthy man. Because he is. You don’t have to like it. It simply is what it is. I should know. Before arriving to my own work, I was deeply untrustworthy in my confusion and reactivity. Which led me to be grossly manipulative in my unhappiness. This is a pattern I see collectively though the immature masculine. —— FOR HER VULNERABILITY: You see, even if her mind wants to trust you, her body will never feel safe enough to fully open in your company; if you are unsafe. It will brace in your presence. There will be an energetic cocooning as a form of protection. Not because you are a bad man, but because there are too many parts of you which are unclear, uncertain, distracted and dispersive. This is unsafe for her on every level of love, surrender, and ravished-fuck. Men, you must realize to some degree what it means for her to be in a place of deep softness and receptivity with you. For you, it turns you on. For her, it’s risking life. Many times when I bring this up…men will laugh it up, and claim I am over-exaggerating. This lack of empathetic understanding will be clearly mirrored in his life with women. Deep physical & emotional intimacy calls on her to let go of control, which she has been forced to barricade up around herself, based on her past experiences with immature males - who said one thing, but went and done another. This is what you are asking when you request for her to “surrender” more. You are inviting her into absolute exposure. Based on your intentions and integrity, do you deserve her absolute exposure in this moment? Her absolute vulnerability is a privilege. Any humans vulnerability is a privilege. You are also wanting to literally insert a part of your erect body up inside of hers, in a way which allows you to have full control over how you move inside of her, in the most sensitive & receptive area of her entire physicality. On top of this, there is also the possibility of a new life being created. Which means her entire experience of life changes, and she is essentially tied to you through another human for the remainder of her time here. Is he trustworthy? Can I rely on him? Is he mature enough to be a father? Will he be there for me and our child? Does he have a vision? Will he disappear and leave me? - Just some possible questions which may arise within her experience of being receptive to you. These question may arise upon first laying eyes on you - physical intimacy need not even be involved for these thought patters to begin arising. So many women spend their intimate lives being poked, drilled, pounded, mounted and consumed s€xually - in a disconnected way. Where the man she is with is not actually present in his body with her. He is just doing her, to cum. Again, not because us men are big bad predatory wolves, but because as young boys we were not given intelligent and empowering information around s€x & relating. We were given perverted and shameful information, by a perverted and shameful society. We then went out into the world and seeded this perversion in the wombs & bodies of women. And because her very nature is receptivity, she then has to carry around years of mishandling inside the tissues of her vagina, cervix, womb, breasts and throat. When women come to me for energy sessions, the amount of pain and perversion her body has been subjected to, becomes very apparent, as she opens, vibrates, and unravels. Everything spills out into the room. In many instances it can look like some kind of exorcism. Its as if she’s been held captive inside of a tiny part of her body, afraid to feel or exist within her totality. Why? —— THE FOUNDATION: In a society which champions emotional numbness as “strength”, the only remaining option she has, is to dissociate from the inner aching & shut-down her powerfully intuitive felt-sense; for fear of it being exposed as weakness. Endless bracing. Even in love-making, most women(not all) have learned the importance of bracing; incase he unawarely thrusts at the wrong angle, causing pain. Because of this, she’s never truly being able to exhale and feel the exquisite subtitles which arise from connected & embodied intimacy. …and please, dont get me wrong here. When I speak of embodied intimacy, im not referring to tickling your partner with a feather under the moonlit sky until she “arrives”, followed by a curtsey. Im talking about sweaty, deep, primally driven, passion drenched fuck - but supported by a foundation of deeply attuned sensitivity and care towards the others wellbeing. This foundational safety, allows the intensity of passion, orgasmicness, love & primality - to reach heights never touched upon before; back when distracted disconnection was driving the vehicle. When both people are present; tuned-in to self and other, God gets to enter the room. Life, spirit, eros gets to fill the space. So please do not confuse embodied s€x for some boring-ass flaccid form of un-pleasurable intimacy. Its more physically, energetically, & spiritually orgasmic than anything else we have access to in this life. —— WELCOME HER CHALLENGE. As a man, maybe you are naturally wanting to experience her receptivity towards you. Her willingness, longing & desire to invite you in; for her to bathe in oceans of vulnerability - A vulnerability which has been, many times before you; used against her. Disrespected, judged & dropped. Based on all of this...why on earth would she trust a man who she hasn’t vetted repeatedly? If as a man you would like to be stronger for woman, for yourself, for community; welcome challenge. Welcome HER challenge. Realize that she is pushing up against you, because she actually gives a damn about you. If she didn’t, she would never feel the need to test anything about you. Once you have proven your character(to yourself) through stable consistency, and she has digested you viscerally, a deeper dropping into devotion and union can begin. (To further clarify: A matured man will not feel these behaviours as "tests" or "challenges", as they will be so minuscule on the energetic scale of that which he is used to engaging with. The concept of a women "testing him" is not something which he holds in his awareness. Also, a woman who is around a mature man, wont even waste her time trying to test him, as his solidarity will be very clear from the get-go. The above sharing is more for "middle-ground" stages.) —— BOUNDARIES We really need to see the beauty present in the opportunity to demonstrate our sharpness and strength, in all areas of life. Welcome the challenging of your boundaries, so that you have the opportunity to show-up firm and clear in your sovereignty. One of the greatest gifts a woman can bring to a man, is through exposing the areas of his being which lack stability. A powerful embodied woman really requires your boundaries and self-respect to be existing at the forefront of your being - At the forefront of the relationship. So that she has something stable & reliable to brush up against. She may also require a necessary spanking from time to time, if she really gets out of line. Depending on her general level of “feist” of course. In many cases, the insatiable feminine will purposefully do things to magnetize you into disciplining, activating & transmuting her to completion. This, is a whole other topic of conversation, which we can keep for a later date. But there is profound trust and turn-on which is built through healthy masculine discipline and order. **Dear Internet humans, Im assuming you know the difference between spanking her, and beating her - and how the 1st is conducive to a passionate, playful, polarized relationship, while the latter…is clearly not.** —— The below advice is written with the assumption that you have a deep love for this woman(women collectively), and you would like to know how to love her deeper, as it aligns with your integrity. NOT to get something in return from her. HOW DO WE LOVE HER?: By supporting and empowering her to be EXACTLY that which she has come here to be. Without conditioning, controlling, or imprisoning her. So she can come to understand & ooze her innate service to the planet. - Claiming her, if you are choosing to be with her. - Leading her with love and truth, in every moment it is required. - Protecting her. Both physically, and energetically. - Saying what you mean, and meaning what you say. - Remaining diligent and disciplined in your own relationship to life & your mission. Without compromise. - Calling her out/being real with her - holding her accountable. We love her, by reminding her of the tremendous power she is, in any moment she happens to forget it, or falls victim to the disempowering social narratives of backwards womanhood. To add to that - Making love/penetrating/fucking her as deeply and as profoundly as you can arrive to. Which will unveil & shift her experience of this life. As will her “opening” transform how you experience yours. Learn to love her, especially in her “hardness”. Especially in her anger. Especially in her frustration. Especially in her tension. Especially in all the places she has been mishandled and traumatized. You need not viscerally like it, but through showing up and loving her when she is deep in it, we assist in transmuting the collective pain present in so many women, AND men. If you don’t want to love her, and you have no interest in any of the above; there’s nothing wrong with that - But leave her alone. She doesn’t need another half-assed version of undercooked love. None of us do. If you are going to be there, at least commit to it. ---- Finally, please understand that this is a nuanced process, which has its own flavor for each individual. This sharing is to offer some experiential information which I deem as valuable sign posts. Please note that In everything I share, my individual mission comes through heavy, so I dont expect it to resonate for everybody at all times. Perfection is never the goal, but I believe impeccable integrity ought to be, in whatever we do. However you arrive to your way, is right on time. And it need not look like my or anybody else’s way. Here’s hoping what I have shared today can be of some value as you walk the path of “what the fuck is going on down here?”, and support us all in having to carry around less numbness, and more ALIVENESS. In love & service, Chris Bale

#healing #divine masculine #divine feminine #romance #love

0 notes

perfectzablog · 6 years

Text

Why Children Aren’t Behaving, And What You Can Do About It

Childhood — and parenting — have radically changed in the past few decades, to the point where far more children today struggle to manage their behavior.

That’s the argument Katherine Reynolds Lewis makes in her new parenting book, The Good News About Bad Behavior.

“We face a crisis of self-regulation,” Lewis writes. And by “we,” she means parents and teachers who struggle daily with difficult behavior from the children in their lives.

Lewis, a journalist, certified parent educator and mother of three, asks why so many kids today are having trouble managing their behavior and emotions.

Three factors, she says, have contributed mightily to this crisis.

First: Where, how and how much kids are allowed to play has changed. Second, their access to technology and social media has exploded.

Finally, Lewis suggests, children today are too “unemployed.” She doesn’t simply mean the occasional summer job for a high school teen. The term is a big tent, and she uses it to include household jobs that can help even toddlers build confidence and a sense of community.

“They’re not asked to do anything to contribute to a neighborhood or family or community,” Lewis tells NPR in a recent interview. “And that really erodes their sense of self-worth — just as it would with an adult being unemployed.”

Below is more of that interview, edited for length and clarity.

What sorts of tasks are children and parents prioritizing instead of household responsibilities?

To be straight-A students and athletic superstars, gifted musicians and artists — which are all wonderful goals, but they are long-term and pretty narcissistic. They don’t have that sense of contribution and belonging in a family the way that a simple household chore does, like helping a parent prepare a meal. Anyone who loves to cook knows it’s so satisfying to feed someone you love and to see that gratitude and enjoyment on their faces. And kids today are robbed of that.

It’s part of the work of the family. We all do it, and when it’s more of a social compact than an adult in charge of doling out a reward, that’s much more powerful. They can see that everyone around them is doing jobs. So it seems only fair that they should also.

Kids are so driven by what’s fair and what’s unfair. And that’s why the more power you give kids, the more control you give them, the more they will step up.

You also argue that play has changed dramatically. How so?

Two or three decades ago, children were roaming neighborhoods in mixed-age groups, playing pretty unsupervised or lightly supervised. They were able to resolve disputes, which they had a strong motivation to because they wanted to keep playing. They also planned their time and managed their games. They had a lot of autonomy, which also feeds self-esteem and mental health.

Nowadays, kids, including my own, are in child care pretty much from morning until they fall into bed — or they’re under the supervision of their parents. So they aren’t taking small risks. They aren’t managing their time. They aren’t making decisions and resolving disputes with their playmates the way that kids were 20 or 30 years ago. And those are really important social and emotional skills for kids to learn, and play is how all young mammals learn them.

While we’re on the subject of play and the importance of letting kids take risks, even physical risks, you mention a remarkable study out of New Zealand — about phobias. Can you tell us about it?

This study dates back to when psychologists believed that if you had a phobia as an adult, you must have had some traumatic experience as a child. So they started looking at people who had phobias and what their childhood experiences were like. In fact, they found the opposite relationship.

People who had a fall from heights were less likely to have an adult phobia of heights. People who had an early experience with near-drowning had zero correlation with a phobia of water, and children who were separated from their parents briefly at an early age actually had less separation anxiety later in life.

We need to help kids to develop tolerance against anxiety, and the best way to do that, this research suggests, is to take small risks — to have falls and scrapes and tumbles and discover that they’re capable and that they can survive being hurt. Let them play with sticks or fall off a tree. And yeah, maybe they break their arm, but that’s how they learn how high they can climb.

You say in the book that “we face a crisis of self-regulation.” What does that look like at home and in the classroom?

It’s the behavior in our homes that keeps us from getting out the door in the morning and keeps us from getting our kids to sleep at night.

In schools, it’s kids jumping out of seats because they can’t control their behavior or their impulses, getting into shoving matches on the playground, being frozen during tests because they have such high rates of anxiety.

Really, I lump under this umbrella of self-regulation the increase in anxiety, depression, ADHD, substance addiction and all of these really big challenges that are ways kids are trying to manage their thoughts, behavior and emotions because they don’t have the other skills to do it in healthy ways.

You write a lot about the importance of giving kids a sense of control. My 6-year-old resists our morning schedule, from waking up to putting on his shoes. Where is the middle ground between giving him control over his choices and making sure he’s ready when it’s time to go?

It’s a really tough balance. We start off, when our kids are babies, being in charge of everything. And our goal by the time they’re 18 is to be in charge of nothing — to work ourselves out of the job of being that controlling parent. So we have to constantly be widening the circle of things that they’re in charge of, and shrinking our own responsibility.

It’s a bit of a dance for a 6-year-old, really. They love power. So give him as much power as you can stand and really try to save your direction for the things that you don’t think he can do.

He knows how to put on his shoes. So if you walk out the door, he will put on his shoes and follow you. It may not feel like it, but eventually he will. And if you spend five or 10 minutes outside that door waiting for him — not threatening or nagging — he’ll be more likely to do it quickly. It’s one of these things that takes a leap of faith, but it really works.

Kids also love to be part of that discussion of, what does the morning look like. Does he want to draw a visual calendar of the things that he wants to get done in the morning? Does he want to set times, or, if he’s done by a certain time, does he get to do something fun before you leave the house? All those things that are his ideas will pull him into the routine and make him more willing to cooperate.

Whether you’re trying to get your child to dress, do homework or practice piano, it’s tempting to use rewards that we know our kids love, especially sweets and screen time. You argue in the book: Be careful. Why?

Yes. The research on rewards is pretty powerful, and it suggests that the more we reward behavior, the less desirable that behavior becomes to children and adults alike. If the child is coming up with, “Oh, I’d really like to do this,” and it stems from his intrinsic interests and he’s more in charge of it, then it becomes less of a bribe and more of a way that he’s structuring his own morning.

The adult doling out rewards is really counterproductive in the long term — even though they may seem to work in the short term. The way parents or teachers discover this is that they stop working. At some point, the kid says, “I don’t really care about your reward. I’m going to do what I want.” And then we have no tools. Instead, we use strategies that are built on mutual respect and a mutual desire to get through the day smoothly.

You offer pretty simple guidance for parents when they’re confronted with misbehavior and feel they need to dole out consequences. You call them the four R’s. Can you walk me through them?

The four R’s will keep a consequence from becoming a punishment. So it’s important to avoid power struggles and to win the kid’s cooperation. They are: Any consequence should be revealed in advance, respectful, related to the decision the child made, and reasonable in scope.

Generally, by the time they’re 6 or 7 years old, kids know the rules of society and politeness, and we don’t need to give them a lecture in that moment of misbehavior to drill it into their heads. In fact, acting in that moment can sometimes be counterproductive if they are amped up, their amygdala’s activated, they’re in a tantrum or exploited state, and they can’t really learn very well because they can’t access the problem-solving part of their brain, the prefrontal cortex, where they’re really making decisions and thinking rationally. So every misbehavior doesn’t need an immediate consequence.

You even tell parents, in the heat of the moment, it’s OK to just mumble and walk away. What do you mean?

That’s when you are looking at your child, they are not doing what you want, and you cannot think of what to do. Instead of jumping in with a bribe or a punishment or yelling, you give yourself some space. Pretend you had something on the stove you need to grab or that you hear something ringing in the other room and walk away. That gives you just a little space to gather your thoughts and maybe calm down a little bit so you can respond to their behavior from the best place in you — from your best intentions as a parent.

I can imagine skeptics out there, who say, “But kids need to figure out how to live in a world that really doesn’t care what they want. You’re pampering them!” In fact, you admit your own mother sometimes feels this way. What do you say to that?

I would never tell someone who’s using a discipline strategy that they feel really works that they’re wrong. What I say to my mom is, “The tools and strategies that you used and our grandparents used weren’t wrong, they just don’t work with modern kids.” Ultimately, we want to instill self-discipline in our children, which will never happen if we’re always controlling them.

If we respond to our kids’ misbehavior instead of reacting, we’ll get the results we want. I want to take a little of the pressure off of parenting; each instance is not life or death. We can let our kids struggle a little bit. We can let them fail. In fact, that is the process of childhood when children misbehave. It’s not a sign of our failure as parents. It’s normal.

Why Children Aren’t Behaving, And What You Can Do About It published first on https://greatpricecourse.tumblr.com/

0 notes

festivalists · 6 years

Text

Frame vs context

The latest edition of Thessaloniki International Film Festival served as a battlefield for two hashtags: #ChooseYourFrame (the official festival tagline) and #WhoIsFuckingGreekCinema (the iconoclasts' motto). Are people on the poster flying high above the sea or in a free fall? The frame seems to persuade us it is the former. Yet, same question applies to the current state of the Greek film industry, too, and the response is a bit more complex. Our Lydia Papadimitriou probes into the context.

Greek cinema found itself under fire at this year’s Thessaloniki International Film Festival. On November 2nd, the day of the festival opening, the Greek Minister of Culture Lydia Koniordou announced the early and immediate dismissal of the Greek Film Centre’s General Director Electra Venaki citing vague differences with the organization’s Board of Directors. Exactly a week earlier, on October 26th, the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation - ERT (Greece’s other main state funding body for cinema) announced the immediate cessation of the decision-makers' committee just a few days before the results of the latest project-funding call were out. Despite being unconnected, the two events created a strong sense of anger and insecurity among the Greek filmmaking community, a large part of which was in attendance in Thessaloniki, because since last year’s change of leadership, TIFF has resumed its key role in promoting and supporting Greek cinema by screening the majority of Greek films produced in 2017.

Who Is Fucking Greek Cinema badges and flyers circulated in TIFF's venues, while the traditional press conference of ERT only served to intensify insecurities among the Greek filmmakers. In response to her sudden dismissal, Electra Venaki, who had been due to attend the festival, sent a detailed and authoritative reply to the press requesting a clear explanation of the reasons for her cessation, and highlighting her extensive contribution to the institution in the 18 months since she took office. Instead of any illuminating reply, a short and vague statement by the GFC's Board of Directors gave no specific reasons for the decision, aside from claiming the General Director's reluctance to facilitate some of the Board of Directors' priorities, and announcing her (temporary) replacement with the GFC's Director of Production Vassilis Kosmopoulos.

Irrespective of the specific circumstances surrounding each of these two separate events, what becomes clear is that Greek cinema is caught up in power struggles within its supporting bodies (and with the government) – struggles that serve anything but the filmmaking community's interests. In the case of the Greek Film Centre, a large part of the problem rests with the vagueness of law 3905/2010 that regulates its managerial structure, as the text is open to different interpretations about the roles and responsibilities of GFC's General Director and Board of Directors, and can thus become the breeding ground for (personal) confrontations. It is a happy occurrence, therefore, that the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, regulated by the same law, has not fallen pray to such dysfunctions, and succeeded for one more year, despite financial difficulties, to both offer a very rich programme of screenings, while also supporting the filmmaking community with its Agora market activities.

Among the “33 Greek feature films directed by both newcomers and established filmmakers” shown in Thessaloniki, and among those I watched, three very different works directed by women stood out: Elina Psykou's SON OF SOFIA / O GIOS TIS SOFIAS (2017), Dora Masklavanou's POLYXENI (2017), and Nancy Biniadaki's THE SURFACE OF THINGS (2017). Psykou's feature (which won for Best Film in the International Narrative Competition at Tribeca this April) is set during the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens and focuses on the experience of an 11-year-old boy who joins his Russian mother in Greece only to find out that she is married to a much older man whom she also looks after. A study of the way in which – despite its characters' best intentions – psychological violence breeds physical violence in a family, the film has thematic and stylistic affinities with the so-called Greek Weird Wave. Psykou's film handles the story in a distinctive and humorous way, in which huge soft toys underscore awkward expressions of love, enable empowering (also ridiculous) masquerades, and assist imaginary escapes.

Masklavanou's film, a costume drama based on a true story set in the 1970s, also focuses on familial and social oppression, only in a very different way. Its titular character, Polyxeni, is a young woman orphaned during the Greek civil war, fostered and later adopted by a rich Greek family in Istanbul. Broken down in its component parts 'poly' and 'xeni', her name and the film's title mean 'very foreign' in Greek, a metaphorical signification overemphasised in the opening titles, where a small gap splitting the word into two is evident. The metaphor does, however, point to the fundamental conflict in the film – the fact that Polyxeni is never fully accepted by her adoptive family, nor by the insular and reactionary Greek community in Istanbul. The film, which won the Youth Jury Award for a Greek production, handles its storytelling very successfully, balancing empathy with social commentary, and managing to trigger emotions without succumbing to sentimentality.

In contrast to the mainstream stylistic approach of POLYXENI, Biniadaki's debut THE SURFACE OF THINGS is an unconventional adaptation of a novel by Angela Dimitrakaki. The work is structured in four unconnected consecutive sequences, in which each of the film's four characters share with us fragmented memories of their youth in the 1980s. In doing so, they gradually reveal a traumatic event involving Athens' semi-mythical ancient rivers and a girl being swept away by them. While it can be difficult to follow all aspects of the story, the excellent performances of its female leads (especially Maria Kallimani and Themis Bazaka) turn this storytelling experiment into a compelling watch, that, while being firmly set in the present, invites the audience to mentally reconstruct aspects of the culture in the Greek capital in the 1980s.

Among Greek newcomers, Dimitris Tsilifonis is certainly worth a mention, as his well-paced and imaginatively orchestrated humorous action movie DO IT YOURSELF (2017) is an eminently watchable, entertaining, and clever genre film. Produced without the support of Greece's beleaguered state institutions but with the financial backing of the pay TV Nova and the large cinema distributor Odeon, it utilises very effectively its limited budget, and will hopefully appeal to a wide public, thus hopefully reinvigorating Greek popular cinema.

Nevertheless, while Greek films are an important part of the TIFF, they are by no means its only focus. One of its most distinctive strands is the Balkan Survey, now in its 24th year, which showcases both recent and classic films from the region. Among the recent films, Hanna Slak's THE MINER / RUDAR (2017) stood out. Based on the true story of the discovery of an unattributed mass grave from World War II, the film skilfully weaves the exploration of older and more recent traumas, dealing subtly but effectively with the history of ex-Yugoslavia. A Slovenian-Croatian-German production, THE MINER had previously participated in Thessaloniki's co-production forum Crossroads, just like Gjorce Stavreski's Macedonian-Greek SECRET INGREDIENT / ISCELITEL (2017), which had its world premiere in Thessaloniki. Stavreski's film uses a comic but also empathetic tone to explore its main character's attempts to help his cancer-suffering father with marijuana-infused cakes, while also trying to avoid the gangsters who try to recoup their lost goods. The film offers a touching portrayal of a father-son relationship, while also pointing to social dysfunctions in the former Yugoslav republic. SECRET INGREDIENT won the Audience Award for the Balkan Survey section.

But it was the older Balkan films, a tribute to literary adaptations from the region, that were particularly worth seeing this year in Thessaloniki, especially as they were screened from 35mm copies complete with flicker and print scratches. Among those I enjoyed are the two Bulgarian films, the anti-war transnational and forbidden romance in Vulo Radev's THE PEACH THIEF / KRADETZAT NA PRASKOVI (1964), and the tragic story of sexual discovery and revenge in Metodi Andonov's THE GOAT HORN / KOZIAT ROG (1972). From Yugoslavia, Aleksandar Petrović's tripartite anti-war study THREE / TRI (1965) and Ante Babaja's harsh depiction of early XX-century peasant life THE BIRCH TREE / BREZA (1967) represented excellent examples of what is now Serbian and Croatian cinema, respectively. Also on the topic of peasants, Stere Gulea's THE MOROMETE FAMILY / MOROMEȚII (1987) vividly depicts a Romanian family's saga during the 1930s, as it is affected by broader social changes.

If old technology was celebrated through the festival's archival screenings (including, apart from the Balkan Survey, a tribute to Ida Lupino and the recently deceased French director Armand Gatti, as well as a number of Greek classics), new technology had also a dynamic presence in this year's festival edition. For the first time, TIFF launched a competition section with 10 VR titles, shown in a new venue near the main cinemas. Among the VR projects shown was the ARTE co-financed DOLPHIN MAN, a VR film complementing Lefteris Haritos' similarly titled feature-length documentary based on the life of free-diver Jacques Mayol. The VR competition winners were the South Korean BLOODLESS (2017) that portrays the last moments of a brutally murdered sex-worker's life and NOTES ON BLINDNESS (2016) that uses the diaries of John Hull to communicate the experience of losing sight.

More treats – the festival opened with Ildikó Enyedi's Golden-Bear winner ON BODY AND SOUL / TESTRÖL ÉS LÉLEKRÖL (2017) and closed with Sally Potter's THE PARTY (2017). In its Open Horizons section, TIFF screened an excellent selection of indies, including Valeska Grisebach's WESTERN (2017) that (ironically) transposes contemporary conflicts between civilisation and wilderness to the European Union's Eastern borders, in Bulgaria. The festival also hosted a retrospective of Ruben Östlund, whose Palme d'Or winner THE SQUARE (2017) was not only screened but triggered the installation of a smaller scale square on Thessaloniki's Aristotle square – half-seriously, half-playfully reproducing the film's critique of the art world, its institutions, and its dependence on media. A charismatic speaker, Östlund gave a highly entertaining and illuminating masterclass open to the public. Alexander Payne also attended the festival with his new film DOWNSIZING (2017) that was very well received in Thessaloniki. Of Greek descent, Payne has been a regular supporter of the festival, having attended seven times and participated as a competition juror twice.

This brings us, finally, to the International Competition itself, programmed this year under the overall theme of Taking Roots inspired by Simone Weil's writings, as explained in the festival's new semi-scholarly publication entitled Non-Catalogue (its name, presumably, a clin d'oeil to Östlund's sarcastic similar references in THE SQUARE). Swedish cinematographer Jens Assur's debut feature RAVENS / KORPARNA (2017) won TIFF's Golden Alexander for the beautifully shot and powerfully narrated story of a 1970s farmer who is trying to resist the modernisation and capitalism's changes. Vahid Jalilvand's unsettling, insightful, and engrossing moral tale NO DATE, NO SIGNATURE / BEDOUNE TARIKH, BEDOUNE EMZA (2017), about a doctor assuming responsibility for a death that may or may not have been of his own making, received the festival's second award, the Silver Alexander.

Despite the clouds of insecurity and anger caused by knee-jerk political decisions concerning the future of state support of Greek cinema, the overall spirit in Thessaloniki was optimistic. In its 58th year, and despite the numerous changes, transformations, and crises of its own during TIFF's long history, the festival remains a major cultural hub for watching, discussing, planning, and reviewing films from Greece, the Balkans, Europe and beyond. The sold-out screenings, the full cafés and restaurants in its vicinity, and the overall festival buzz testify to this. Let's just hope that in the years to come the other film-supporting institutions in Greece will follow the Thessaloniki festival's successful example.

If you are a film industry professional, you can watch titles from Thessaloniki IFF on Festival Scope

0 notes